FOI Blog

Now that the legislative committee system has wound down (save for the budget conference, which isn’t exactly a forum for broad citizen input), I wanted to highlight this column that ran last weekend in the Washington Post. Those of you who read VCOG’s daily listserv already saw this item posted, but for those of you…

Sunshine Week is an effort spearheaded by the American Society of Newspaper Editors. Spanning the week of March 16, which is the birthday of James Madison, the patron saint of open records, the effort seeks to highlight the ways in which public records figures into our everyday lives. The Virginia Coalition for Open Government is…

The school board for Williamsburg and James City County met Tuesday in closed session to discuss a personnel issue. Last fall, a successful high school football had been accused last fall of mistreating a player during practice. The athletic department’s investigation cleared the coach, but the parent who complained took the matter to the administrative…

Last year, thanks in large part to some stirring testimony from two VCOG members, a bill that would have allowed government to sue a citizen that the government felt was harassing it with FOIA requests was sent to the FOIA Council for further study. The discussions in those FOIA Council study committees was thorough and…

McLean delegate Barbara Comstock is introducing two bills we find particularly noteworthy. One is called the Government Transparency Act and it attempts to create a website that would allow users to search for and aggregate various information, like (i) individual or specific appropriations or budget items, (ii) state agency spending and procurement data, (iii) financial disclosure…

An interesting FOIA bill was filed yesterday by Del. Bob Marshall. In HB1722 Marshall proposes to add a requirement that at the time of creation of any public record, the custodian of such records that are subject to FOIA shall designate whether the record is subject to FOIA’s mandatory disclosure provisions or otherwise exempt from disclosure. The…

Del. Jim LeMunyon and Del. Mark Keam have again introduced a measure to put legislators’ voting histories on the legislature’s website. The point is to make voting histories on bills, amendments, even committee votes, easily accessible and searchable. Here’s what the two delegates had to say in a press release issued yesterday: Our bill is…

Sen. Steve Martin of Chesterfield has introduced SB 812, which would prohibit the disclosure of a public employee’s name when releasing information related to that employee’s salary or reimbursements. Here’s what the bill says:   2.2-3705.8. Limitation on record exclusions. A. Neither any provision of this chapter nor any provision of Chapter 38 (§ 2.2-3800 et…

The Roanoke Times wrote this editorial today saying that governments should post notices of special public meetings in the newspapers, not just on government websites, libraries or text alerts. First, a clarification. We’re talking here about those statutorily mandated public hearing meetings, like the ones held before certain zoning decisions are made, or for school redistricting,…

I had a citizen-journalist contact me today about a clerk in a rural county who was refusing a request to copy an arrest warrant. The warrant had already been executed and it had not been sealed (nor was there any pending motion to seal it). The clerk simply he/she would not make copies. The citizen…

The Freedom of Information Advisory Council found itself on a list no state agency wants to be on: a list suggesting that various boards and commissions be shuttered. The list, which also includes recommendations for consolidating other boards, has been compiled by a subcommittee on Governor Bob McDonnell’s Government Reform Commission. Not all recommendations for…

  Two roads cross at “The Busiest Intersection in Virginia”: Money and politics.   So says the promotional brochures for the Virginia Public Access Project (VPAP), the 13-year-old non-profit founded by David Poole to shine the light on political contributions and political expenditures in Virginia.   The organization, which now boasts three employees and may…

At the Virginia Coalition for Open Government’s annual conference, the panel topics were very different, but there was nonetheless a common thread running through them all. Panelists and speakers who gathered at the Capitol on Oct. 22 discussed lobbying the General Assembly, access to information on college campuses, government technology, FOIA basics and using FOIA…

One of the ideals underlying VCOG’s formation in 1996 was the notion that Virginia’s Freedom of Information Act was a citizens’ law, not a press law. It was the people’s right to know, not just a reporter’s right to know.   VCOG’s first director, Frosty Landon, was a newspaper man himself, but he tirelessly championed…

The FOIA Council has had its plate full this summer, studying issues affecting access and the Freedom of Information Act.   Some of the issues are not particularly problematic, more matters of degree or of detail, like figuring out the right language to use for the amount of advance notice a public body must have…

I’ve lost count of the articles and editorials I’ve read over the past several months. I’ve even lost count of the localities or boards. The Albemarle School Board stands out only because it may be the most recent (and, truth be told, because a faithful VCOG member of many years alerted me to it). So,…

From time to time I get calls from reporters who are doing stories about Virginia’s FOIA or public access laws in general. Invariably, I’ll be asked how Virginia rates against other states: is it better, worse, average?   When asked, I tend to limp along in response, hedging here, qualifying there, because it’s really tough…

  It was a busy week in the courts last week for access to government records, and I’m not even talking about the release on Wikileaks of tens of thousands of classified documents related to the war in Afganistan.   Right here in Virginia, three cases in varying stages of litigation were bright on the…

Better records management and better tracking of FOIA requests can make a government clerk’s ability to keep up with FOIA duties easier.

I received two comments yesterday from readers about another reader’s suggestion for reducing costs from the Fee, Fi, Fo, Fum post earlier this week. The original suggestion came from a frequent records requester in California, and it appears that Virginia law isn’t set up in a way to make the suggestion feasible. (p.s. Changes to…

According to the Mississippi Center for Freedom of Information at the University of Mississippi, the Magnolia state’s open records law says public bodies can charge the “actual cost” for providing the records. “Who knew those two words could be interpreted in so many ways?” the center asks in its spring newsletter.   Virginia similarly uses…

The law is the law is the law.   We can have heartfelt and earnest discussions about whether certain laws should exist. We can also reasonably debate the letter of the law versus the spirit of the law.   Under the Virginia Freedom of Information Act, we should also add to the mix the role…

A few weeks ago I talked about the great tips and strategies suggested by David Cuillier in his Access Across America talk. Between the things Cuillier had to say during the presentation, the fantastic handouts and Cuillier’s book, The Art of Access, there are so many helpful suggestions that it’s hard to pick among as…

Public records in Virginia are presumed open. As such, they must be disclosed upon request unless a law in another part of the Virginia (or, possibly federal) law prohibits it. Period.   But, wait a minute, what about exemptions to disclosure in FOIA? Don’t those prohibit disclosure?   No, no they don’t.   FOIA’s 142-some-odd…

It happened again today.   Some FOIA issues come up over and over and over. Usually, it’s an overarching issue with lots of possible permutations. That is, maybe it’s an issue having to do with response time, but there are a thousand different scenarios. Or, maybe it’s about exemptions, but there are over 120 exemptions…